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A group of sub-nuclei of the amygdala that recieves sensory input, including information about the presence of odors and pheromones, and relays it to the medial basal forebrain and hypothalamus.

lateral nucleus (LA)

a nucleus of the smygdala that recieves sensory information from the neocortex, thalamus, and hippocampus and send projections to the basal, accessory basal, and central nucleus of the amygdala

central nucleus (CE)

The region of the amygdala that recieves info. from the basal, lateral, and accessory basal nuclei and sends projections to a wide variety of regions in the brain; involved in emotional responses.

conditioned emotional response

A classically conditioned response that occurs when a neutral stimulus is followed by an aversive stimulus; usually includes autonomic, behavioral, and endocrine components such as changes in heart rate, freezing, and secretion of stress related hormones.

The region of the prefrontal cortex at the base of the anterior frontol lobes; right above eye sockets. Serves as sort of interface between brain mechanisms involved in emotional response and those involved in the control of complex behaviors. Social eptness.

volitional facial paresis

Difficulty in moving the facial muscles voluntarily, caused by damage to the face region of the primary motor cortex or its subcortical connections.

Emotional facial paresis

Lack of movement of facial muscles in response to emotions in people who have no difficulty moving these muscles voluntarily, caused by damage to the insular pre-frontal cortex, subcortical white matter of the frontal lobe, or parts of the thalamus

James-Lange Theory

A theory of emotion that suggests that behaviors and physiological responses are directly elicited by situations and that feelings of emotions are produced by feedback from these behaviors and responses.

Perceptual learning

learning to recognize a particular stimulus.

stimulus-response learning

learning to automatically make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus, includes classical and instrumental conditioning.

classical conditioning

A learning procedure; when a stimulus that initially produces no particular response is followed several times by an "unconditional stimulus" that produces a defensive or appetive response (the unconditional response), the first stimulus (now called a conditional stimulus) itself evokes the response (now called conditional response).

Hebb Rule

the hypothesis proposed by Donal Hebb that the cellular basis of learning involves strengthening of a synapse that is repeatedly active when the post-synaptic neuron fires.

Instrumental conditioning

A learning procedure whereby the effects of a particular behavior in a particular situation increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) the probability of the behavior; also called operant conditioning

reinforcing stimulus

An appetive stimulus that follows a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior become more frequent

punishing stimulus

An aversive stimulus that follows a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior become less frequent.

motor learning

Learning to make a new response.

relational learning

A complex form of learning that involves the relations among individual stimuli; includes spatial learning, episodic learning, and observational learning

long term potentiation

A long term increase in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by repeated high frequency activity of that input.

hippocampal formation

A forebrain structure of the temporal lobe, constituting an important part of the limbic system; includes the hippocampus proper (Ammon's horn), dentate gyrus, and subiculum

population EPSP

An evoked potential that represents the EPSP's of a population of neurons.

associative long term potentiation

A long term potentiation in which concurrent stimulation of weak and strong synapses to a given neuron strengthens the weak ones.

NMDA receptor

A specialized ionotropic glutamate receptor that controls a calcium channel that is normally blocked by Mg2+ ions; involved in long-term potentiation.

APS

2-Amino-5-phosphonopentanoate, a drug that blocks NMDA receptors.

dendritic spike

An action potential that occurs in the dendrite of some types of pyramidal cells.

AMPA receptor

An ionotropic glutamate receptor that controls a sodium channel; when open, it produces EPSPs.

CaM-KII

Type II calcium-calmodulin kinase, an enzyme that must be activated by calcium; may play a role in the establishment of long-term potentiation.

nitric oxide synthase

An enzyme responsible for the production of nitric oxide.

long-term depression (LTD)

A long-term decrease in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by stimulation of the terminal button while the postsynaptic membrane is hyperpolarized or only slightly depolarized.

medial forebrain bundle (MFB)

A fiber bundle that runs in a rostral-caudal direction through the basal forebrain and lateral hypothalamus; electrical stimulation of these axons is reinforcing.

ventral tegmental area (VTA)

A group of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral midbrain whose axons form the mesolimbic and mesocortical systems; plays critical role in reinforcement

nucleus accumbens

A nucleus of the basal forebrain near the septum; recieves dopamine-secreting terminial buttons from neurons of the ventral tegmental area and is thought the be involved in reinforcement and attention.

anterograde amnesia

Amnesia for events that occur after some disturbance in the brain, such as head energy or certain degenerative diseases. Specifically hinders declarative memory a function of relational learning.

immediate memory for events, which may or may not be consolidated into the long term memory.

long term memory

Relatively stable memory of events that occurred in the more distant past, as opposed to short term memory.

declarative memory

Memory that can be verbally expresses, such as memory for events in a person's past

nondeclarative memory

memory whose formation does not depend on the hippocampal formation; a collective term for perceptual, stimulus response, and motor memory.

perirhinal cortex

A region of the limbic cortex adjacent to the hippocampal formation that, along with the parahippocampal cortex relays information between the entorhinal cortex and other regions of the brain.

parahippocampal cortex

A region of limbic cortex adjacent to the hippocampal formation that, along with the perirhinal cortex, relays info. between the entorhinal cortex and other regions of the brain.

spatial receptive field

The region of the environment into which the entry of an animal will produce an increase in the firing rate of a place cell in the animal's brain.

place cell

A neuron that becomes active when the animal is in a particular location in the environment, most typically found in the hippocampal formation

glioma

A cancerous brain tumor composed of one of several types of glial cells.

meningioma

A benign brain tumor composed of the cells that constitute the meninges.

seizure disorder

The preferred term for epilepsy

partial seizure

A seizure that begins at a focus and remains localized, not generalizing to the rest of the brain.

generalized seizure

A seizure that involves most of the brain, as contrasted with a partial seizure, which remains localized.

simple partial seizure

A partial seizure, starting from a focus and remaining localized, that does not produce loss of conciousness.

complex partial seizure

A partial seizure, starting from a focus and remaining localized, that produces loss of conciousness.

grand mal seizure

A generalized, tonic-clonic seizure, which results in a convulsion.

aura

A sensation that precedes a seizure; its exact nature depends on the location of the seizure focus.

tonic phase

The first phase of a grand mal seizure, in which all of the patient's skeletal muscles are contracted.

clonic phase

The phase of a grand mal seizure in which the patient shows rythmic jerking movements.

absence

A type of seizure disorder often seen in children; characterized by periods of inattention, which are not subsequently remembered; also called petit mal.

status epilepticus

A condition in which a patient undergoes a series of seizures without regaining conciousness.

hemmorhagic stroke

A cerebrovascular accident caused by the rupture of a cerebral blood vessel.

obstructive stroke

A cerebrovascular accident caused by occlusion of a blood vessel.

ischemia

The interruption of the blood supply to a region of the body.

thrombus

A blood clot that forms within a blood vessel, which may occlude it.

embolus

A piece of matter (such as a blood clot, fat, or bacterial debris) that dislodges from its site of origin and occludes an artery; in the brain an embolus can lead to stroke.

free radical

A molecule with unpaired electrons; acts as a powerful oxidizing agent, toxic to cells.

fetal alcohol syndrome

A birth defect caused by ingestion of alcohol by a pregnant woman; includes characteristic facial anomalies and faulty brain development.

neural adhesion protein

A protein that plays a role in brain development; helps to guide the growth of neurons.

phenylketonuria (PKU)

A hereditary disorder caused by the absence of an enzyme that converts the amino acid phenylalanine to tyrosine; the accumulation of phenylalanine causes brain damage unless a special diet in implemented soon after birth.

pyridoxine dependency

A metabolic disorder in which an infant requires larger than normal amounts of pyridoxine (vitamin B6) to avoid neurological symptoms.

galactosemia

An inherited metabolic disorder in which galactose (milk sugar) cannot be easily metabolized.

Tay-Sachs disease

A heritable, fatal, metabolic storage disorder; lack of enzymes in lysosomes causes accumulation of waste produces and swelling of cells in the brain.

Down syndrome

A disorder caused by the presence of an extra twenty first chromosome, characterized by moderate to severe mental retardation and often by physical abnormalities.

A protein that can exist in two forms that differ only in their three-dimensional shape; accumulation of misfolded prion protein is responsible for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.

caspase

A "killer enzymes" that plays a role in apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

Lewy body

Abnormal circular structures with a dense core consisting of a-synuclein protein; found in the cytoplasm of nigrostriatal neurons in people with parkinson's disease.

a-synuclein

A protein normally found in the presynaptic membrane, where it is apparently involved in synaptic plasticity. Abnormal accumulations are apparently the cause of neural degeneration in Parkinson's disease.

proteosome

An organelle responsible for destroying defective or degraded proteins within the cell.

internal division of the globus pallidus (GP1)

A division of the globus pallidus that provides inhibitory input to the motor cortex via the thalamus; sometimes stereotaxically lesioned to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.